hysterical reenactments
with MC Elberg
Inspired by Silvia Federici's Caliban and The Witch, Hysterical Reenactments began as a research inquiry into the second-wave feminist appropriation of the historical witch figure, and evolved into a multi-part performance project focusing on the short-lived activist group WITCH (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell).
Reenacting their Halloween hex of Wall Street according to Robin Morgan’s account in Going Too Far, we went to each site in the financial district terrorized by WITCH in 1968, performed new hex-poems by M.C. Elberg, and read text from original documents. Elberg’s poems were published in zine form—alongside an essay by myself and photos from the hex—-in company with original WITCH ephemera.
When asked to participate in Piehole’s artist events at Irondale Theater in conjunction with their experimental play, Old Paper Houses, we used the opportunity to distribute the zine by means of an installation modeled after an Army recruitment booth. Our table also offered free hand-cast witch noses, cupcakes, other printed feminist “propaganda,” along with costumes and makeup for the audience to transform into WITCHes if they so desired. The recruitment booth was recreated at Bard College in the summer of 2015 at an entrance into the surrounding forest. Later, the zine was distributed at the Printed Matter Book Fair at MoMA/PS1 and at the Sunview Luncheonette.
A few months after our hex on Wall Street, I began communicating with original member and co-founder of WITCH, Peggy Dobbins. Now living in Texas, Dobbins generously shared her experiences in the feminist and labor movements via phone, email, and recorded video call. In the above video, I combine fragments of our conversation with my own re-performance of her interview text and pieces of documentation from our recent hex. These layers of historical reenactment come together to form something between documentary and lived archive.